It’s my pleasure to welcome to the House the Rehoboth students from Rehoboth Christian School. I had the pleasure of meeting them this morning and am looking forward, very much so, to their singing of O Canada today.

I want to remind them: There’s the eagle that I told you about. You can’t see the owl, but maybe later on you can. Thank you so much for being in the Legislature today.

It’s my privilege to welcome some fine folks from AdvantAge Ontario—in fact, 27 of them, including CEO Lisa Levin and chair of the board Sue Graham-Nutter.

AdvantAge is one of our government’s fantastic partners in the long-term-care sector, representing non-for-profit homes and the vital work they do for our seniors. Let’s not forget it’s their advocacy day, so everyone, please join them in committee rooms 228 and 230 at 5 p.m. for a fun reception. Thank you for coming to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Julie Wheeler. Julie is the director for seniors’ services at Sunnyside seniors’ services in my riding of Kitchener Centre. Thank you, Julie, for your selfless work for seniors in the region of Waterloo.

On behalf of the official opposition, I’d also like to welcome the board of AdvantAge, and in particular, one of the members of the board is from my riding, Paul Chatelain. He is the administrator of Rosedale Manor in Matheson, South Centennial Manor in Iroquois Falls and Villa Minto in Cochrane. He’s also the CEO of those three respective hospitals. He’s a very busy guy. Welcome, Paul.

I’d like to welcome, from my riding, Linda Tracey, the CEO of Marianhill long-term-care home in Pembroke, who is also here with AdvantAge Ontario. Linda also encourages everyone to join her and her colleagues at the reception between 5 and 7 in 228 and 230. Thank you for joining us, Linda.

It’s my pleasure as well to welcome a member of the board of AdvantAge Ontario: Jennifer Cornell, who is director of long-term care for Grey county, does a great job in our riding. Thank you for all your great work, and welcome.

I’d like to welcome a delegation of students from the Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario who are with us today in the member’s gallery: Maryan Amalow, Faraz Khorsandi, Mitra Yakubi, Hisham Barakat, Christian Alvarez, Nawfal Sbaa and Mohammed El-Mendri. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Speaker. I would like to welcome the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada to Queen’s Park. It’s wonderful that you were able to host a reception this morning.

I also want to extend my personal warm gratitude and welcome to Sue Graham-Nutter, the CEO of the Rekai Centres, a distinguished long-term-care facility in our community of Toronto Centre, and also the chair of AdvantAge Ontario.

I also want to welcome all the members from AdvantAge Ontario and recognize the great work that they do for seniors in this province, and a special welcome to Carey Duncan, director of Lanark Lodge, in beautiful Perth, Ontario. It’s one of our most preferred homes thanks to the hard work of Carey Duncan and all her staff. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

In 1978, if you phoned 476-5044, you would have got me at the end of the line. But today, 45 years later, you will get Scott and Cheryl Clark on the line, and they’re here in the audience.

Thank you very much for granting me leave to take a little extra time to introduce Steven Harrison, who is here with AdvantAge from my riding of Kitchener–Conestoga.

I’d like to welcome Sudburians from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby: Cathy Orlando, Claire Orlando, Maggie Fu and Sophia Mathur.

Maggie now lives in Toronto, Speaker, but she reminded me that when I was there, her and her father became Canadian citizens. It’s very special to me that she’s here today.

I’d like to welcome two guests from Haliburton-Norfolk, Laurie Burroughs and Jeff Muller. Welcome to your House.

I would like to welcome Tanya Baker, who is here from Thunder Bay, representing AdvantAge Ontario.

I would also like to welcome, from OPSEU: Noah Freedman, Simon Chateauvert, JP Hornick, RM Kennedy and Simran Ghuman, who are all here to represent the interests of forest firefighters.

I’d like to introduce Ontario Genomics, with us here today in the gallery. I’d also like to invite my colleagues to attend their lunchtime reception taking place in room 228 right after question period. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

This being the first sitting Monday of the month, this morning we have with us in the public gallery the Rehoboth Christian School choir from the riding of Flamborough–Glanbrook to perform O Canada and God Save the King. Please stand and join them in the singing of our national and royal anthems.

Singing of the national anthem / Chant de l’hymne national.

Singing of the royal anthem / Chant de l’hymne royal.

Applause.

My understanding, of course, is that the chief of staff has reached out to the Integrity Commissioner to highlight the fact that there is actually no inconsistency with the testimony.

This question is for the Premier. During the Integrity Commissioner’s investigation into the greenbelt grab, the Premier’s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, said under oath that he did not discuss removal criteria with anyone until October 27, 2022. But late last year, we in the NDP obtained an email sent from the personal account of Ryan Amato to the personal account of Mr. Sackville, discussing the removals and dated October 17, 10 days earlier.

To the Premier: Can the Premier explain this 10-day discrepancy in the testimony of his chief of staff to the Integrity Commissioner?

This email was sent on the same day as a dramatic meeting between ministry staffers and the Premier’s housing policy adviser, Jae Truesdell. You might recall that was called a “train wreck of a meeting.” Mr. Truesdell was learning about the greenbelt scheme for the first time and, evidently, what he heard alarmed him. Mr. Amato said Mr. Truesdell didn’t know about the greenbelt scheme because he was told to “leave him in the dark.” According to the Integrity Commissioner, Mr. Amato identified Mr. Sackville as the “decision-maker in the Premier’s office for this project.”

Back to the Premier: Why did the Premier’s chief of staff tell Mr. Amato to leave his own housing policy adviser in the dark?

So I want to go back to the Premier again: In addition to Mr. Sackville, how many other officials in the Premier’s office discussed the greenbelt scheme earlier than what they told the Integrity Commissioner?

This question is for the Premier as well. This government was warned by the Auditor General back in 2021 that an overreliance on international student tuition was going to put our post-secondary education sector in a very untenable financial position. There was a steady stream of warnings coming from colleges and universities, from the government’s own expert panel, from us in the opposition, about the serious financial risk they were facing because of a lack of funding. The Minister of Colleges and Universities has claimed she wasn’t even aware a cap on international students was coming. It defies belief.

Back to the Premier: Was the minister asleep at the wheel here, or did she look the other way while private career colleges massively exploited the International Student Program?

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. The Attorney General recently put two of the Premier’s buddies onto the committee responsible for judicial appointments. Shockingly, when the Premier was asked about these appointments, he said that he wants to ensure that the committee is only recommending Conservative-affiliated judges. He went so far as to suggest that if a judicial candidate had voted for the NDP or Liberals, they are a threat to public safety.

Yet, it is on this government’s watch that our criminal justice system has spiralled into chaos. It’s on this Premier’s watch that our courtrooms are closed every day due to understaffing. It’s on his watch that serious cases are routinely thrown out for delay.

Will the Premier reverse his partisan appointments, or is he just comfortable further undermining public confidence in the justice system?

Interjections.

The Federation of Ontario Law Associations put out one of the more measured statements in response to the Premier’s comments, saying that the Premier has a “juvenile misapprehension” of the judicial appointments and that his comments are irresponsible, harmful and dangerous to our democracy.

It is shocking that even in our criminal justice system, the Premier’s focus seems to be entirely on producing favours for his insiders. Many people sitting across from me were given useless titles around King’s Counsel, and now, this government is putting unqualified friends into a position where they get to do favours for more Conservative allies.

Will the Premier reverse these appointments and apologize to the public and the legal community for their interference in the judicial appointments?

Interjections.